“Sending our barley to the International Space Station is a big step towards our goal of creating a microgravity brew,” emails Ricardo Marques, vice president, Budweiser. “Our obsession with innovation led us to this place, and we couldn’t be more excited for Budweiser to be the beer one day enjoyed on the red planet.”

AB InBev is partnering with both the non-profit Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) that manages space station’s research facility as well as Space Tango, a private company that runs two commercial research units within the National Lab. The seeds will stay in orbit for a month before coming back down to earth to be analyzed by AB InBev’s American innovation team in Colorado.

So is it a publicity stunt?

According to a spokesperson, "Budweiser is taking the commitment to create microgravity beer very seriously, which is why we’ve partnered with leaders in the space industry like CASIS. Together with our Liquid Innovation team, the duo will conduct experiments on the International Space Station, to begin the process of understanding how we can create a microgravity beer."